Oneshot - House
by BadWritingAnon
Summary: Amy and Sonic move in - Short prompt based on the word "Change" (Tried to limit myself to shorter writing, overshot it by 400 words.)


"Hey, Amy!"

The pink hedgehog looked around to see Sonic coming up the stairs behind her, carrying several heavy boxes in his hands. Leaning on the bannister, she gave him a grin.

"Yes, Sonic?"

"This is the last of the boxes right? I'm not coming up here again."

Amy frowned.

"Don't be like that." she pouted, helping him with some of the baggage from the top. "It's not every day you move somewhere new."

Sonic shifted uneasily with the boxes still in hand. It wasn't out of being uncomfortable, she knew full well he could easily handle the packages she had asked him to carry from the train. He'd been distant all week, ever since the day they had finally set a date for the move. That in itself was a hassle, they'd pushed it back four months already. Well sure, there'd been the Eggman attack on Holoska, but she knew for a fact Sonic had dragged that out.

"Come on you, the elevator's broken until Tuesday." She took another box from him and nodded her head back up the stairs. "You're not going to make a girl like me carry them all are you?"

He raised his eyebrow at her, shuffling the boxes once more as he started to follow her.

"You have stronger arms than me Amy, you can't pull the girl card." laughed Sonic, his arm brushing past her on the stairs. A smile spread it's way across her face, which she unsuccessfully tried to hide.

She couldn't help it really, her feelings, her thoughts, just getting him here was enough to nearly make her cry out of happiness. It had been a long fought battle, but she'd managed to get through to him eventually.

She kicked the living room door open to a mess of parcels and quilts, all gifted from Vanilla. It was the middle of summer but "Just in case it gets cold." She worried sometimes for the health of Vanilla's daughter.

"And that - " Amy said, kneeling down to rummage through one of the many boxes she'd left on the floor, "...is the last of them! Finally moved in, can you believe it?" She pulled out various items before frowning, looking at the labels she'd placed there two weeks ago. "Do you know which one I put the kettle in?"

"N-not sure."

"Damn. I can't even blame you cause I remember packing it this morning. However..."

Amy walked over to the kitchen and reached into one of the very few organised cupboards to bring out two matching mugs with heart handles. Rouge had gifted them for her leaving party in Station Square, as well as a lot of other gifts, now hidden away under wrapping in one of the parcels somewhere. She seemed to specialise in finding things to make her blush. At least these were suitable enough to display in public.

"Look, Sonic!" she yelled, still looking at the handles. "They match, we can have matching cups of tea!" Finally, she looked up to where he was. "Don't you think they're..."

Standing by the door, slightly shaking, stood Sonic, speechless. He didn't seem to register her, nor the mugs she was proudly displaying for his attention. She matched his gaze, following it to the window. It was one of the reasons for buying this place, admittedly. Lush green mountains created the perfect backdrop behind the numerous buildings that, or at least, she was told by their estate agent, would light up like the finest casino this side of South Island.

"Sonic?" Amy interrupted, cautiously.

He shook his head, seemingly returning to the same world that she was in.

"Sorry Amy, just … distracted, sorry."

Slowly, she put the mugs down on the counter, being careful not to damage them. She reckoned this day would come, but had been hoping to approach it slowly, not the second they had moved in.

"Sonic… you did actually want to move, right?"

He hesitated.

"...of course..."

"You paused."

"I mean, kinda, but-"

"I should have known this was going to happen, I… I knew it was too good to be true."

Letting go of the door handle, Sonic walked over to her, giving her a long hug. The energy to reciprocate left her, instead she settled for placing her head into his shoulder.

"Y'know, for a second, I almost believed we could make this work, and I … I could look after you. I… I really..."

Sonic let go of her and walked over to the window, where Amy followed.

"It's not you, it's just … look."

The summer's sun hadn't started setting yet, even now this late into the evening. The shadow's from the taller buildings overhung many others, the glare from the sun flitting in between structures, light reflection and refracting off windows, not to mention the slightly red hue that the hills behind all this was starting to take on. Sonic placed his hand on the window, his fingers running across the glass, almost as it trying to grab the scene in front of him.

"That out there was my house." he said, so quiet as to be nearly to himself. "Anywhere, Amy. Any tree I could find, any cave I stopped at. I could run to Empire City all the way to Pumpkin Hill… find some small out of the way place and just … have it be mine. Anywhere in the world."

"You… you don't want to be held down, do you?"

Sonic finally tore his gaze away from the landscape, his eyes once again focusing on Amy. She smiled at him, though there shone no happiness in the expression.

"That's why you delayed moving in, isn't it?" she asked him, as he stood there nervously. She knew he cared about her feelings, and would be more than aware of how she was feeling at the moment, but … he couldn't lie to her. Even if he thought he could. She'd known him for so long she could read him like a book. His whole expression was one of apologetic reassurance, but … her feelings of ecstatic happiness were fleeting fairly quickly. This was supposed to be a milestone in their lives, something to be celebrated. But yet…

Sonic made his way to the couch, sitting down to pull some stuff out of his personal boxes in front of him. There wasn't a lot, most of the stuff had come from Amy, even if she was reluctant to admit it.

"This is all new to me Amy. A house. Christ, having stuff, even." He pulled out a bracelet from the box, a memento from an old friend, now long gone. "Not to mention the Air Gear, the keys for the tornado, drawings from Cream." He rummaged through the box again, eventually pulling out a piece of paper. "Look, it's one of you and me, in a new house."

'A' new house. Not 'my new house', not 'our' new house, which stung a bit, but a new house. As if distancing himself from it.

Sitting down next to him, she looked at the drawing. Somewhat crude and a bit unflattering with the crayon, but she didn't have it in her to criticise a six year old. However, it showed what was unmistakably them two next to a house. Four windows, a big red door, a chimney with smoke coming out of it. A house that looked almost nothing like any actual house in the world, let alone theirs, yet somehow managed to encapsulate all of them at once. The universal house of houses.

"My 'home'."

She looked up at Sonic again, who was staring at the drawing intently.

"Well… yeah." she replied, cautiously. He was never like this, almost reflective. "What's wrong, Sonic?"

He spoke softly, his eyes still on the page, fixated on the rather rectangular door in the drawn building.

"I never needed money or thanks or even shelter, I just ... needed somewhere out there to be. To feel the wind upon my quills, to see the stars at night."

She knew this of course, she had heared this for almost the entire time she had known him. It was one of the things that drew him to her. That drew him to everyone really. He was truly one of the more selfless people she knew, despite how much he tried to hide it. All he wanted was to do his own thing, his way.

She'd talked to both Knuckles and Tails on this, both spending more time with him over the years. They had initially laughed, but upon seeing Amy's face, had spent the afternoon discussing it. Sonic would obviously be against moving in somewhere, he was a free hedgehog. Why did Amy want so badly for him to stay? Was it personal? Was it just for Amy's sake?

"Do you remember..." started Amy, taking the paper away from him, her thumb running down the pair of them stood together. " ... you remember Eggman's theme park? Where he captured all those poor wisps?"

"Don't think I'll forget to be honest." he laughed. "Nearly had it near the end."

"Tails let us know when you were going, said you had a sneaking suspicion about the place."

"I was right, be fair."

She raised her eyebrow at him, to which he wisely decided to keep quiet.

"We were all watching you go up." Amy carried on, leaning back into the couch, her shoulders resting on the leather. "It was just something to do, y'know? It was nice actually knowing where you'd gone for once. B-but then..." She couldn't help it, even just talking about it now was starting to choke her up. "W-we knew you must have been up there w-while the black hole started to tear the place apart. And... and then you ..."

She felt his hands rest on her arm, to which she shook off. Saying nothing, he leant back, as Amy tried to gather up the energy to continue.

"You just ... ran off. With Tails no less. We only realised you were still alive when someone posted a picture of you eating ice-cream on the other side of the world." She took a second to get the tears out of her eye, the presence of which annoying her greatly. "There was just debris up there."

"I've been in worse -"

"And we worry every time, Sonic. _I_ worry every time. Every single time you run off somewhere, to some other part of the world." He opened his mouth to say something, but Amy's raised hand halted him in his tracks. "One day you'll get into a bad scrape you won't be able to just walk away from. I ... I just don't want you to be out there with no-one to help you. Where no-one knows where you are. Y-you're going to die one day and I ... I don't want you to be alone and h-helpless when you do."

The sound of the city flooded the room in the available silence the two had left for it. Cars, trains, the sound of people going about their day. Amy looked up through her hands, which she'd temporarily used to hide the tears threatening to stream down her face. Sonic was looking into her eyes, albeit slightly blurred.

"That's why you wanted me to move in?" he asked.

"Y-yeah."

"Then I'll stay." He got up and ruffled her hair, which made her blush. "Guess I'll learn to chill in one place." He looked longingly outside for a while, before drawing the curtains. "Going to be a bit odd though. Always in one place."

"Huh?"

"Slowing down, settling, didn't think I'd be doing this for some time." he stretched, still looking towards the window, the view now obscured by the curtains. "Had to happen eventually I suppose."

"Wait, do you think that's what I meant by move in?"

Sonic paused mid-turn from the window, giving her a curious look. "That's what people do, right? Move in, stay together, kind of thing?"

"Not all the time, you goof."

"Huh?"

She laughed, and then laughed some more, no wonder he'd been so worried about this. But the fact he was willing to do that just for her, just to make her happy, it was...

"I wouldn't ever try and stop you from going out into the world. I just... I wanted somewhere you can always come back to. Somewhere you can pop in and stay if you're tired, have your own things, let us know you're keeping well." She walked on over to him and gave him a long hug, her tears still falling, but for different reasons. "And one day..." she said, rubbing her hand across his back, "when you're done fighting-"

"Amy..."

"When you're done fighting" she repeated firmly, "you'll have somewhere to come back to. I... I know you'll probably travel around regardless, but... you'll always have a home. ... even if it's a second one."

She let go of him, brushing herself off slightly. "You can go for a run now if you want."

For the first time today, his eyes lit up, there was no hiding it, his whole face was practically glowing.

"I'll pack the stuff away, go on you." she laughed, walking over to the mugs once more, putting a teabag in just one. "At least pop in sometime this week, I need to go over the choice of carpet with you."

"Th-thanks Amy, honestly, I just... I-"

"Go, before I change my mind."

Quickly, he ran over and pecked her on the forehead before speeding off, the door's hinges (custom-ordered) withstood it's knockback, leaving a draft to envelop the very stunned pink hedgehog, hand still raised above the cup. She smiled, ecstatic, and started to make her tea, humming to herself.  
An hour later, the door's hinges were tested again as a blue blur sped through, before closing, and remaining closed for the night's duration. While the house still did not look like the house on the drawing now proudly displayed on the fridge, it was at least mostly accurate, as the dimming light signalled the end of the day.


End file.
